Chapter VII: Part 7

In the first or second year of the Administration of President Adams Andrew Ellicott, then employed in designating, in conjunction with the Spanish authorities, the boundaries between the territories of the United States and Spain, under the treaty with that nation, communicated to the Executive of the United States papers and information respecting the subjects of the present inquiry, which were deposited in the Office of State. Copies of these are now transmitted to the House of Representatives, except of a single letter and a reference from the said Andrew Ellicott, which, being expressly desired to be kept secret, is therefore not communicated, but its contents can be obtained from himself in a more legal form, and directions have been given to summon him to appear as a witness before the court of inquiry.

A paper on "The Commerce of Louisiana," bearing date the 18th of April, 1798, is found in the Office of State, supposed to have been communicated by Mr. Daniel Clark, of New Orleans, then a subject of Spain, and now of the House of Representatives of the United States, stating certain commercial transactions of General Wilkinson in New Orleans. An extract from this is now communicated, because it contains facts which may have some bearing on the questions relating to him.

The destruction of the War Office by fire in the close of 1800 involved all information it contained at that date.

The papers already described therefore constitute the whole of the information on the subjects deposited in the public offices during the preceding Administrations, as far as has yet been found; but it can not be affirmed that there may be no other, because, the papers of the office being filed for the most part alphabetically, unless aided by the suggestion of any particular name which may have given such information, nothing short of a careful examination of the papers in the offices generally could authorize such an affirmation.

About a twelvemonth after I came to the administration of the Government Mr. Clark gave some verbal information to myself, as well as to the Secretary of State, relating to the same combinations for the dismemberment of the Union. He was listened to freely, and he then delivered the letter of Governor Gayoso, addressed to himself, of which a copy is now communicated. After his return to New Orleans he forwarded to the Secretary of State other papers, with a request that after perusal they should be burnt. This, however, was not done, and he was so informed by the Secretary of State, and that they would be held subject to his orders. These papers have not yet been found in the office. A letter, therefore, has been addressed to the former chief clerk, who may perhaps give information respecting them. As far as our memories enable us to say, they related only to the combinations before spoken of, and not at all to the corrupt receipt of money by any officer of the United States; consequently they respected what was considered as a dead matter, known to the preceding Administrations, and offering nothing new to call for investigations, which those nearest the dates of the transactions had not thought proper to institute.

In the course of the communications made to me on the subject of the conspiracy of Aaron Burr I sometimes received letters, some of them anonymous, some under names true or false, expressing suspicions and insinuations against General Wilkinson; but one only of them, and that anonymous, specified any particular fact, and that fact was one of those which had been already communicated to a former Administration.

No other information within the purview of the request of the House is known to have been received by any department of the Government from the establishment of the present Federal Government. That which has been recently communicated to the House of Representatives, and by them to me, is the first direct testimony ever made known to me charging General Wilkinson with the corrupt receipt of money, and the House of Representatives may be assured that the duties which this information devolves on me shall be exercised with rigorous impartiality. Should any want of power in the court to compel the rendering of testimony obstruct that full and impartial inquiry which alone can establish guilt or innocence and satisfy justice, the legislative authority only will be competent to the remedy.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 30, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

The Choctaws, being indebted to their merchants beyond what could be discharged by the ordinary proceeds of their buntings, and pressed for payment, proposed to the United States to cede lands to the amount of their debts, and designated them in two different portions of their country. These designations, not at all suiting us, were declined. Still urged by their creditors, as well as by their own desire to be liberated from debt, they at length proposed to make a cession which should be to our convenience. By a treaty signed at Pooshapuckanuck on the 16th of November, 1805, they accordingly ceded all their lands south of a line to be run from their and our boundary at the Omochita eastwardly to their boundary with the Creeks, on the ridge between the Tombigbee and Alabama, as is more particularly described in the treaty, containing about 5,000,000 acres, as is supposed, and uniting our possessions there from Adams to Washington County.

The location contemplated in the instructions to the commissioners was on the Mississippi. That in the treaty being entirely different, I was at that time disinclined to its ratification, and I have suffered it to lie unacted on. But progressive difficulties in our foreign relations have brought into view considerations other than those which then prevailed. It is now, perhaps, as interesting to obtain footing for a strong settlement of militia along our southern frontier eastward of the Mississippi as on the west of that river, and more so than higher up the river itself. The consolidation of the Mississippi Territory and the establishment of a barrier of separation between the Indians and our Southern neighbors are also important objects; and the Choctaws and their creditors being still anxious that the sale should be made, I submitted the treaty to the Senate, who have advised and consented to its ratification. I therefore now lay it before both Houses of Congress for the exercise of their constitutional powers as to the means of fulfilling it.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 30, 1808.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

The posts of Detroit and Mackinac having been originally intended by the Governments which established and held them as mere depots for commerce with the Indians, very small cessions of land around them were obtained or asked from the native proprietors, and these posts depended for protection on the strength of their garrisons. The principles of our Government leading us to the employment of such moderate garrisons in time of peace as may merely take care of the post, and to a reliance on the neighboring militia for its support in the first moments of war, I have thought it would be important to obtain from the Indians such a cession in the neighborhood of these posts as might maintain a militia proportioned to this object; and I have particularly contemplated, with this view, the acquisition of the eastern moiety of the peninsula between the lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie, extending it to the Connecticut Reserve so soon as it could be effected with the perfect good will of the natives.

By a treaty concluded at Detroit on the 17th of November last with the Ottoways, Chippeways, Wyandots, and Pattawatimas so much of this country has been obtained as extends from about Saguina Bay southwardly to the Miami of the Lakes, supposed to contain upward of 5,000,000 acres, with a prospect of obtaining for the present a breadth of 2 miles for a communication from the Miami to the Connecticut Reserve.

The Senate having advised and consented to the ratification of this treaty, I now lay it before both Houses of Congress for the exercise of their constitutional powers as to the means of fulfilling it.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 2, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

Having received an official communication of certain orders of the British Government against the maritime rights of neutrals, bearing date the 11th of November, 1807, I transmit them to Congress, as a further proof of the increasing dangers to our navigation and commerce, which led to the provident measure of the act of the present session laying an embargo on our own vessels,

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 4, 1808.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In my message of January 20 I stated that some papers forwarded by Mr. Daniel Clark, of New Orleans, to the Secretary of State in 1803 had not then been found in the Office of State, and that a letter had been addressed to the former chief clerk, in the hope that he might advise where they should be sought for. By indications received from him they are now found. Among them are two letters from the Baron de Carondelet to an officer serving under him at a separate post, in which his views of a dismemberment of our Union are expressed. Extracts of so much of these letters as are within the scope of the resolution of the House are now communicated. With these were found the letters written by Mr. Clark to the Secretary of State in 1803. A part of one only of these relates to this subject, and is extracted and inclosed for the information of the House. In no part of the papers communicated by Mr. Clark, which are voluminous and in different languages, nor in his letters, have we found any intimation of the corrupt receipt of money by any officer of the United States from any foreign agent. As to the combinations with foreign agents for dismembering the Union, these papers and letters offer nothing which was not probably known to my predecessors, or which could call anew for inquiries, which they had not thought necessary to institute, when the facts were recent and could be better proved. They probably believed it best to let pass into oblivion transactions which, however culpable, had commenced before this Government existed, and had been finally extinguished by the treaty of 1795.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 9, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I communicate to Congress, for their information, a letter from the person acting in the absence of our consul at Naples, giving reason to believe, on the affidavit of a Captain Sheffield, of the American schooner _Mary Ann_, that the Dey of Algiers has commenced war against the United States. For this no just cause has been given on our part within my knowledge. We may daily expect more authentic and particular information on the subject from Mr. Lear, who was residing as our consul at Algiers.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 15, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I communicate for the information of Congress a letter from the consul of the United States at Malaga to the Secretary of State, covering one from Mr. Lear, our consul at Algiers, which gives information that the rupture threatened on the part of the Dey of Algiers has been amicably settled, and the vessels seized by him are liberated.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 19, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

The States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia having by their several acts consented that the road from Cumberland to the State of Ohio, authorized by the act of Congress of the 29th of March, 1806, should pass through those States, and the report of the commissioners, communicated to Congress with my message of the 31st January, 1807, having been duly considered, I have approved of the route therein proposed for the said road as far as Brownsville, with a single deviation, since located, which carries it through Uniontown.

From thence the course to the Ohio and the point within the legal limits at which it shall strike that river is still to be decided. In forming this decision I shall pay material regard to the interests and wishes of the populous parts of the State of Ohio and to a future and convenient connection with the road which is to lead from the Indian boundary near Cincinnati by Vincennes to the Mississippi at St. Louis, under authority of the act of the 21st April, 1806. In this way we may accomplish a continued and advantageous line of communication from the seat of the General Government to St. Louis, passing through several very interesting points of the Western country.

I have thought it advisable also to secure from obliteration the trace of the road so far as it has been approved, which has been executed at such considerable expense, by opening one-half of its breadth through its whole length.

The report of the commissioners, herewith transmitted, will give particular information of their proceedings under the act of the 29th March, 1806, since the date of my message of the 31st January, 1807, and will enable Congress to adopt such further measures relative thereto as they may deem proper under existing circumstances.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 25, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

The dangers to our country arising from the contests of other nations and the urgency of making preparation for whatever events might affect our relations with them have been intimated in preceding messages to Congress. To secure ourselves by due precautions an augmentation of our military force, as well regular as of volunteer militia, seems to be expedient. The precise extent of that augmentation can not as yet be satisfactorily suggested, but that no time may be lost, and especially at a season deemed favorable to the object, I submit to the wisdom of the Legislature whether they will authorize a commencement of this precautionary work by a present provision for raising and organizing some additional force, reserving to themselves to decide its ultimate extent on such views of our situation as I may be enabled to present at a future day of the session.

If an increase of force be now approved, I submit to their consideration the outlines of a plan proposed in the inclosed letter from the Secretary of War.

I recommend also to the attention of Congress the term at which the act of April 18, 1806, concerning the militia, will expire, and the effect of that expiration.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 26, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I inclose, for the information of Congress, letters recently received from our ministers at Paris and London, communicating their representations against the late decrees and orders of France and Great Britain, heretofore transmitted to Congress. These documents will contribute to the information of Congress as to the dispositions of those powers and the probable course of their proceedings toward neutrals, and will doubtless have their due influence in adopting the measures of the Legislature to the actual crisis.

Although nothing forbids the general matter of these letters from being spoken of without reserve, yet as the publication of papers of this description would restrain injuriously the freedom of our foreign correspondence, they are communicated so far confidentially and with a request that after being read to the satisfaction of both Houses they may be returned.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 1, 1808.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of February 26, I now lay before them such memorials and petitions for the district of Detroit, and such other information as is in my possession, in relation to the conduct of William Hull, governor of the Territory of Michigan, and Stanley Griswold, esq., while acting as secretary of that Territory.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 2, 1808.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of November 30, 1807, I now transmit a report of the Secretary of State on the subject of impressments, as requested in that resolution. The great volume of the documents and the time necessary for the investigation will explain to the Senate the causes of the delay which has intervened.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 7, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

In the city of New Orleans and adjacent to it are sundry parcels of ground, some of them with buildings and other improvements on them, which it is my duty to present to the attention of the Legislature. The title to these grounds appears to have been retained in the former sovereigns of the Province of Louisiana as public fiduciaries and for the purposes of the Province. Some of them were used for the residence of the governor, for public offices, hospitals, barracks, magazines, fortifications, levees, etc., others for the townhouse, schools, markets, landings, and other purposes of the city of New Orleans; some were held by religious corporations or persons, others seem to have been reserved for future disposition. To these must be added a parcel called the Batture, which requires more particular description. It is understood to have been a shoal or elevation of the bottom of the river adjacent to the bank of the suburbs of St. Mary, produced by the successive depositions of mud during the annual inundations of the river, and covered with water only during those inundations. At all other seasons it has been used by the city immemorially to furnish earth for raising their streets and courtyards, for mortar, and other necessary purposes, and as a landing or quay for unlading firewood, lumber, and other articles brought by water. This having been lately claimed, by a private individual, the city opposed the claim on a supposed legal title in itself; but it has been adjudged that the legal title was not in the city. It is, however, alleged that that title, originally in the former sovereigns, was never parted with by them, but was retained in them for the uses of the city and Province, and consequently has now passed over to the United States. Until this question can be decided under legislative authority, measures have been taken according to law to prevent any change in the state of things and to keep the grounds clear of intruders. The settlement of this title, the appropriation of the grounds and improvements formerly occupied for provincial purposes to the same or such other objects as may be better suited to present circumstances, the confirmation of the uses in other parcels to such bodies, corporate or private, as may of right or on other reasonable considerations expect them, are matters now submitted to the determination of the legislature.

The papers and plans now transmitted will give them such information on the subject as I possess, and being mostly originals, I must request that they may be communicated from the one to the other House, to answer the purposes of both.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 10, 1808.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

A purchase having lately been made from the Cherokee Indians of a tract of land 6 miles square at the mouth of the Chickamogga, on the Tennessee, I now lay the treaty and papers relating to it before the Senate, with an explanation of the views which have led to it.

It was represented that there was within that tract a great abundance of iron ore of excellent quality, with a stream and fall of water suitable for iron works; that the Cherokees were anxious to have works established there, in the hope of having a better supply of those implements of household and agriculture of which they have learned the use and necessity, but on the condition that they should be under the authority and control of the United States.

As such an establishment would occasion a considerable and certain demand for corn and other provisions and necessaries, it seemed probable that it would immediately draw around it a close settlement of the Cherokees, would encourage them to enter on a regular life of agriculture, familiarize them with the practice and value of the arts, attach them to property, lead them of necessity and without delay to the establishment of laws and government, and thus make a great and important advance toward assimilating their condition to ours. At the same time it offers considerable accommodation to the Government by enabling it to obtain more conveniently than it now can the necessary supplies of cast and wrought iron for all the Indians south of the Tennessee, and for those also to whom St. Louis is a convenient deposit, and will benefit such of our own citizens likewise as shall be within its reach. Under these views the purchase has been made, with the consent and desire of the great body of the nation, although not without some dissenting members, as must be the case will all collections of men. But it is represented that the dissentients are few, and under the influence of one or two interested individuals. It is by no means proposed that these works should be conducted on account of the United States. It is understood that there are private individuals ready to erect them, subject to such reasonable rent as may secure a reimbursement to the United States, and to such other conditions as shall secure to the Indians their rights and tranquillity.

The instrument is now submitted to the Senate, with a request of their advice and consent as to its ratification.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 17, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I have heretofore communicated to Congress the decrees of the Government of France of November 21, 1806, and of Spain of February 19, 1807, with the orders of the British Government of January and November, 1807.

I now transmit a decree of the Emperor of France of December 17,1807, and a similar decree of the 3d of January last by His Catholic Majesty. Although the decree of France has not been received by official communication, yet the different channels of promulgation through which the public are possessed of it, with the formal testimony furnished by the Government of Spain in their decree, leave us without a doubt that such a one has been issued. These decrees and orders, taken together, want little of amounting to a declaration that every neutral vessel found on the high seas, whatsoever be her cargo and whatsoever foreign port be that of her departure or destination, shall be deemed lawful prize; and they prove more and more the expediency of retaining our vessels, our seamen, and property within our own harbors until the dangers to which they are exposed can be removed or lessened.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 18, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

The scale on which the Military Academy at West Point was originally established is become too limited to furnish the number of well-instructed subjects in the different branches of artillery and engineering which the public service calls for. The want of such characters is already sensibly felt, and will be increased with the enlargement of our plans of military preparation. The chief engineer, having been instructed to consider the subject and to propose an augmentation which might render the establishment commensurate with the present circumstances of our country, has made the report which I now transmit for the consideration of Congress.

The idea suggested by him of removing the institution to this place is also worthy of attention. Besides the advantage of placing it under the immediate eye of the Government, it may render its benefits common to the Naval Department, and will furnish opportunities of selecting on better information the characters most qualified to fulfill the duties which the public service may call for.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 22, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

At the opening of the present session I informed the Legislature that the measures which had been taken with the Government of Great Britain for the settlement of our neutral and national rights and of the conditions of commercial intercourse with that nation had resulted in articles of a treaty which could not be acceded to on our part; that instructions had been consequently sent to our ministers there to resume the negotiations, and to endeavor to obtain certain alterations, and that this was interrupted by the transaction which took place betweenthe frigates _Leopard_ and _Chesapeake_. The call on that Government for reparation of this wrong produced, as Congress has been already informed, the mission of a special minister to this country, and the occasion is now arrived when the public interest permits and requires that the whole of these proceedings should be made known to you.

I therefore now communicate the instructions given to our minister resident at London and his communications with that Government on the subject of the _Chesapeake_, with the correspondence which has taken place here between the Secretary of State and Mr. Rose, the special minister charged with the adjustment of that difference; the instructions to our ministers for the formation of a treaty; their correspondence with the British commissioners and with their own Government on that subject; the treaty itself and written declaration of the British commissioners accompanying it, and the instructions given by us for resuming the negotiation, with the proceedings and correspondence subsequent thereto. To these I have added a letter lately addressed to the Secretary of State from one of our late ministers, which, though not strictly written in an official character, I think it my duty to communicate, in order that his views of the proposed treaty and of its several articles may be fairly presented and understood.

Although I have heretofore and from time to time made such communications to Congress as to keep them possessed of a general and just view of the proceedings and dispositions of the Government of France toward this country, yet in our present critical situation, when we find that no conduct on our part, however impartial and friendly, has been sufficient to insure from either belligerent a just respect for our rights, I am desirous that nothing shall be omitted on my part which may add to your information on this subject or contribute to the correctness of the views which should be formed. The papers which for these reasons I now lay before you embrace all the communications, official or verbal, from the French Government respecting the general relations between the two countries which have been transmitted through our minister there, or through any other accredited channel, since the last session of Congress, to which time all information of the same kind had from time to time been given them. Some of these papers have already been submitted to Congress, but it is thought better to offer them again in order that the chain of communications of which they make a part may be presented unbroken.

When, on the 26th of February, I communicated to both Houses the letter of General Armstrong to M. Champagny, I desired it might not be published because of the tendency of that practice to restrain injuriously the freedom of our foreign correspondence. But perceiving that this caution, proceeding purely from a regard to the public good, has furnished occasion for disseminating unfounded suspicions and insinuations, I am induced to believe that the good which will now result from its publication, by confirming the confidence and union of our fellow-citizens, will more than countervail the ordinary objection to such publications. It is my wish, therefore, that it may be now published.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 22, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

In a separate message of this date I have communicated to Congress so much as may be made public of papers which give a full view of the present state of our relations with the two contending powers, France and England. Everyone must be sensible that in the details of instructions for negotiating a treaty and in the correspondence and conferences respecting it matters will occur which interest sometimes and sometimes respect or other proper motives forbid to be made public. To reconcile my duty in this particular with my desire of letting Congress know everything which can give them a full understanding of the subjects on which they are to act, I have suppressed in the documents of the other message the parts which ought not to be made public and have given them in the supplementary and confidential papers herewith inclosed, with such references as that they may be read in their original places as if still standing in them; and when these confidential papers shall have been read to the satisfaction of the House, I request their return, and that their contents may not be made public.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 25, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

In proceeding to carry into execution the act for fortifying our forts and harbors it is found that the sites most advantageous for their defense, and sometimes the only sites competent to that defense, are in some cases the property of minors incapable of giving a valid consent to their alienation; in others belong to persons who may refuse altogether to alienate, or demand a compensation far beyond the liberal justice allowable in such cases. From these causes the defense of our seaboard, so necessary to be pressed during the present season, will in various parts be defeated unless a remedy can be applied. With a view to this I submit the case to the consideration of Congress, who, estimating its importance and reviewing the powers vested in them by the Constitution, combined with the amendment providing that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation, will decide on the course most proper to be pursued.

I am aware that as the consent of the legislature of the State to the purchase of the site may not in some instances have been previously obtained, exclusive legislation can not be exercised therein by Congress until that consent is given. But in the meantime it will be held under the same laws which protect the property of individuals and other property of the United States in the same State, and the legislatures at their next meetings will have opportunities of doing what will be so evidently called for by the particular interest of their own State.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 25, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I now lay before Congress a statement of the militia of the United States according to the latest returns received by the Department of War. From the State of Delaware alone no return has been made.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 25, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit to both Houses of Congress a report from the surveyor on the public buildings of the progress made on them during the last session, of their present state, and of that of the funds appropriated to them. These have been much exceeded by the cost of the work done, a fact not known to me till the close of the season. The circumstances from which it arose are stated in the report of the surveyor.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 29, 1808.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

When the convention of the 7th of January, 1806, was entered into with the Cherokees for the purchase of certain lands, it was believed by both parties that the eastern limit, when run in the direction therein prescribed, would have included all the waters of Elk River. On proceeding to run that line, however, it was found to omit a considerable extent of those waters, on which were already settled about 200 families. The Cherokees readily consented, for a moderate compensation, that the line should be so run as to include all the waters of that river. Our commissioners accordingly entered into an explanatory convention for that purpose, which I now lay before the Senate for consideration whether they will advise and consent to its ratification. A letter from one of the commissioners, now also inclosed, will more fully explain the circumstances which led to it.

Lieutenant Pike on his journey up the Mississippi in 1805-6, being at the village of the Sioux, between the rivers St. Croix and St. Peters, conceived that the position was favorable for a military and commercial post for the United States whenever it should be thought expedient to advance in that quarter. He therefore proposed to the chiefs a cession of lands for that purpose. Their desire of entering into connection with the United States and of getting a trading house established there induced a ready consent to the proposition, and they made, by articles of agreement now inclosed, a voluntary donation to the United States of two portions of land, the one of 9 miles square at the mouth of the St. Croix, the other from below the mouth of St. Peters up the Mississippi to St. Anthonys Falls, extending 9 miles in width on each side of the Mississippi. These portions of land are designated on the map now inclosed. Lieutenant Pike on his part made presents to the Indians to some amount. This convention, though dated the 23d of September, 1805, is but lately received, and although we have no immediate view of establishing a trading post at that place, I submit it to the Senate for the sanction of their advice and consent to its ratification, in order to give to our title a full validity on the part of the United States, whenever it may be wanting, for the special purpose which constituted in the mind of the donors the sole consideration and inducement to the cession.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 30, 1808,

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

Since my message of the 22d instant letters have been received from our ministers at Paris and London, extracts from which, with a letter to General Armstrong from the French minister of foreign relations, and a letter from the British envoy residing here to the Secretary of State, I now communicate to Congress. They add to the materials for estimating the dispositions of those Governments toward this country.

The proceedings of both indicate designs of drawing us, if possible, into the vortex of their contests; but every new information confirms the prudence of guarding against these designs as it does of adhering to the precautionary system hitherto contemplated.

TH. JEFFERSON.

APRIL 2, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

Believing that the confidence and union of our fellow-citizens at the present crisis will be still further confirmed by the publication of the letter of Mr. Champagny to General Armstrong and that of Mr. Erskine to the Secretary of State, communicated with my message of the 30th ultimo, and therefore that it may be useful to except them from the confidential character of the other documents accompanying that message, I leave to the consideration of Congress the expediency of making them public.

TH. JEFFERSON.

APRIL 8, 1808.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

Agreeably to the request of the Senate in their resolution of yesterday, I have examined my papers and find no letter from Matthew Nimmo of the date of November 28, 1806, nor any other from him of any date but that of January 23, 1807, now transmitted, with all the papers in my possession which accompanied it. Nor do I find any letter from John Smith, of Ohio, bearing date at any time in the month of January, 1807.

Having delivered to the Attorney-General all the papers respecting the conspiracy of Aaron Burr which came to my hands during or before his prosecution, I might suppose the letters above requested had been delivered to him; but I must add my belief that I never received such letters, and the ground of it. I am in the habit of noting daily in the list kept for that purpose the letters I receive daily by the names of the writers, and dates of time, and place, and this has been done with such exactness that I do not recollect ever to have detected a single omission. I have carefully examined that list from the 1st of November, 1806, to the last of June, 1807, and I find no note within that period of the receipt of any letter from Matthew Nimmo but that now transmitted, nor of any one of the date of January, 1807, from John Smith, of Ohio. The letters noted as received from him within that period are dated at Washington, February 2, 2, 7, and 21, which I have examined, and find relating to subjects entirely foreign to the objects of the resolution of the 7th instant; and others, dated at Cincinnati, March 27, April 6, 13, and 17, which, not being now in my possession, I presume have related to Burr's conspiracy, and have been delivered to the Attorney-General. I recollect nothing of their particular contents. I must repeat, therefore, my firm belief that the letters of Nimmo of November 28, 1806, and of John Smith of January, 1807, never came to my hands, and that if such were written (and Nimmo's letter expressly mentions his of November 28), they have been intercepted or otherwise miscarried.

TH. JEFFERSON.

APRIL 22, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit to both Houses of Congress a letter from the envoy of His Britannic Majesty at this place to the Secretary of State on the subject of certain British claims to lands in the Territory of Mississippi, relative to which several acts have been heretofore passed by the Legislature.

TH. JEFFERSON.

PROCLAMATION.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas information has been received that sundry persons are combined or combining and confederating together on Lake Champlain and the country thereto adjacent for the purposes of forming insurrections against the authority of the laws of the United States, for opposing the same and obstructing their execution, and that such combinations are too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals by the laws of the United States:

Now, therefore, to the end that the authority of the laws may be maintained, and that those concerned, directly or indirectly, in any insurrection or combination against the same may be duly warned, I have issued this my proclamation, hereby commanding such insurgents and all concerned in such combination instantly and without delay to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes. And I do hereby further require and command all officers having authority, civil or military, and all other persons, civil or military, who shall be found within the vicinage of such insurrections or combinations to be aiding and assisting by all the means in their power, by force of arms or otherwise, to quell and subdue such insurrections or combinations, to seize upon all those therein concerned who shall not instantly and without delay disperse and retire to their respective abodes, and to deliver them over to the civil authority of the place, to be proceeded against according to law.

[SEAL.]

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.

Given at the city of Washington, the 19th day of April, 1808, and in the year of the Sovereignty and Independence of the United States the thirty-second.

TH. JEFFERSON.

By the President:
JAMES MADISON,
_Secretary of State_.

EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

NOVEMBER 8, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

It would have been a source, fellow-citizens, of much gratification if our last communications from Europe had enabled me to inform you that the belligerent nations, whose disregard of neutral rights has been so destructive to our commerce, had become awakened to the duty and true policy of revoking their unrighteous edicts. That no means might be omitted to produce this salutary effect, I lost no time in availing myself of the act authorizing a suspension, in whole or in part, of the several embargo laws. Our ministers at London and Paris were instructed to explain to the respective Governments there our disposition to exercise the authority in such manner as would withdraw the pretext on of which the aggressions were originally founded and open the way for a renewal of that commercial intercourse which it was alleged on all sides had been reluctantly obstructed. As each of those Governments had pledged its readiness to concur in renouncing a measure which reached its adversary through the incontestable rights of neutrals only, and as the measure had been assumed by each as a retaliation for an asserted acquiescence in the aggressions of the other, it was reasonably expected that the occasion would have been seized by both for evincing the sincerity of their professions, and for restoring to the commerce of the United States its legitimate freedom. The instructions to our ministers with respect to the different belligerents were necessarily modified with a reference to their different circumstances, and to the condition annexed by law to the Executive power of suspension, requiring a decree of security to our commerce which would not result from a repeal of the decrees of France. Instead of a pledge, therefore, of a suspension of the embargo as to her in case of such a repeal, it was presumed that a sufficient inducement might be found in other considerations, and particularly in the change produced by a compliance with our just demands by one belligerent and a refusal by the other in the relations between the other and the United States. To Great Britain, whose power on the ocean is so ascendant, it was deemed not inconsistent with that condition to state explicitly that on her rescinding her orders in relation to the United States their trade would be opened with her, and remain shut to her enemy in case of his failure to rescind his decrees also. From France no answer has been received, nor any indication that the requisite change in her decrees is contemplated. The favorable reception of the proposition to Great Britain was the less to be doubted, as her orders of council had not only been referred for their vindication to an acquiescence on the part of the United States no longer to be pretended, but as the arrangement proposed, whilst it resisted the illegal decrees of France, involved, moreover, substantially the precise advantages professedly aimed at by the British orders. The arrangement has nevertheless been rejected.

This candid and liberal experiment having thus failed, and no other event having occurred on which a suspension of the embargo by the Executive was authorized, it necessarily remains in the extent originally given to it. We have the satisfaction, however, to reflect that in return for the privations imposed by the measure, and which our fellow-citizens in general have borne with patriotism, it has had the important effects of saving our mariners and our vast mercantile property, as well as of affording time for prosecuting the defensive and provisional measures called for by the occasion. It has demonstrated to foreign nations the moderation and firmness which govern our councils, and to our citizens the necessity of uniting in support of the laws and the rights of their country, and has thus long frustrated those usurpations and spoliations which, if resisted, involved war; if submitted to, sacrificed a vital principle of our national independence.

Under a continuance of the belligerent measures which, in defiance of laws which consecrate the rights of neutrals, overspread the ocean with danger, it will rest with the wisdom of Congress to decide on the course best adapted to such a state of things; and bringing with them, as they do, from every part of the Union the sentiments of our constituents, my confidence is strengthened that in forming this decision they will, with an unerring regard to the essential rights and interests of the nation, weigh and compare the painful alternatives out of which a choice is to be made. Nor should I do justice to the virtues which on other occasions have marked the character of our fellow-citizens if I did not cherish an equal confidence that the alternative chosen, whatever it may be, will be maintained with all the fortitude and patriotism which the crisis ought to inspire.

The documents containing the correspondences on the subject of the foreign edicts against our commerce, with the instructions given to our ministers at London and Paris, are now laid before you.

The communications made to Congress at their last session explained the posture in which the close of the discussions relating to the attack by a British ship of war on the frigate _Chesapeake_ left a subject on which the nation had manifested so honorable a sensibility. Every view of what had passed authorized a belief that immediate steps would be taken by the British Government for redressing a wrong which the more it was investigated appeared the more clearly to require what had not been provided for in the special mission. It is found that no steps have been taken for the purpose. On the contrary, it will be seen in the documents laid before you that the inadmissible preliminary which obstructed the adjustment is still adhered to, and, moreover, that it is now brought into connection with the distinct and irrelative case of the orders in council. The instructions which had been given to our minister at London with a view to facilitate, if necessary, the reparation claimed by the United States are included in the documents communicated.

Our relations with the other powers of Europe have undergone no material changes since your last session. The important negotiations with Spain which had been alternately suspended and resumed necessarily experience a pause under the extraordinary and interesting crisis which distinguishes her internal situation.

With the Barbary Powers we continue in harmony, with the exception of an unjustifiable proceeding of the Dey of Algiers toward our consul to that Regency. Its character and circumstances are now laid before you, and will enable you to decide how far it may, either now or hereafter, call for any measures not within the limits of the Executive authority.

With our Indian neighbors the public peace has been steadily maintained. Some instances of individual wrong have, as at other times, taken place, but in no wise implicating the will of the nation. Beyond the Mississippi the loways, the Sacs, and the Alabamas have delivered up for trial and punishment individuals from among themselves accused of murdering citizens of the United States. On this side of the Mississippi the Creeks are exerting themselves to arrest offenders of the same kind, and the Choctaws have manifested their readiness and desire for amicable and just arrangements respecting depredations committed by disorderly persons of their tribe. And, generally, from a conviction that we consider them as a part of ourselves, and cherish with sincerity their rights and interests, the attachment of the Indian tribes is gaining strength daily--is extending from the nearer to the more remote, and will amply requite us for the justice and friendship practiced toward them. Husbandry and household manufacture are advancing among them more rapidly with the Southern than Northern tribes, from circumstances of soil and climate, and one of the two great divisions of the Cherokee Nation have now under consideration to solicit the citizenship of the United States, and to be identified with us in laws and government in such progressive manner as we shall think best.

In consequence of the appropriations of the last session of Congress for the security of our seaport towns and harbors, such works of defense have been erected as seemed to be called for by the situation of the several places, their relative importance, and the scale of expense indicated by the amount of the appropriation. These works will chiefly be finished in the course of the present season, except at New York and New Orleans, where most was to be done; and although a great proportion of the last appropriation has been expended on the former place, yet some further views will be submitted to Congress for rendering its security entirely adequate against naval enterprise. A view of what has been done at the several places, and of what is proposed to be done, shall be communicated as soon as the several reports are received.

Of the gunboats authorized by the act of December last, it has been thought necessary to build only 103 in the present year. These, with those before possessed, are sufficient for the harbors and waters most exposed, and the residue will require little time for their construction when it shall be deemed necessary.

Under the act of the last session for raising an additional military force so many officers were immediately appointed as were necessary for carrying on the business of recruiting, and in proportion as it advanced others have been added. We have reason to believe their success has been satisfactory, although such returns have not yet been received as enable me to present you a statement of the numbers engaged.

I have not thought it necessary in the course of the last season to call for any general detachments of militia or of volunteers under the laws passed for that purpose. For the ensuing season, however, they will be required to be in readiness should their service be wanted, Some small and special detachments have been necessary to maintain trie laws of embargo on that portion of our northern frontier which offered peculiar facilities for evasion, but these were replaced as soon as it could be done by bodies of new recruits. By the aid of these and of the armed vessels called into service in other quarters the spirit of disobedience and abuse, which manifested itself early and with sensible effect while we were unprepared to meet it, has been considerably repressed.

Considering the extraordinary character of the times in which we live, our attention should unremittingly be fixed on the safety of our country. For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security. It is therefore incumbent on us at every meeting to revise the condition of the militia, and to ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at every point of our territories exposed to invasion. Some of the States have paid a laudable attention to this object, but every degree of neglect is to be found among others. Congress alone having the power to produce an uniform state of preparation in this great organ of defense, the interests which they so deeply feel in their own and their country's security will present this as among the most important objects of their deliberation.

Under the acts of March 11 and April 23 respecting arms, the difficulty of procuring them from abroad during the present situation and dispositions of Europe induced us to direct our whole efforts to the means of internal supply. The public factories have therefore been enlarged, additional machineries erected, and, in proportion as artificers can be found or formed, their effect, already more than doubled, may be increased so as to keep pace with the yearly increase of the militia. The annual sums appropriated by the latter act have been directed to the encouragement of private factories of arms, and contracts have been entered into with individual undertakers to nearly the amount of the first year's appropriation.

The suspension of our foreign commerce, produced by the injustice of the belligerent powers, and the consequent losses and sacrifices of our citizens are subjects of just concern. The situation into which we have thus been forced has impelled us to apply a pbrtion of our industry and capital to internal manufactures and improvements. The extent of this conversion is daily increasing, and little doubt remains that the establishments formed and forming will, under the auspices of cheaper materials and subsistence, the freedom of labor from taxation with us, and of protecting duties and prohibitions, become permanent. The commerce with the Indians, too, within our own boundaries is likely to receive abundant aliment from the same internal source, and will secure to them peace and the progress of civilization, undisturbed by practices hostile to both.